Live Author Event
Yesterday, Year 5 watched a live author event.
Me and My Community week
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 4th November. This is the first of two themed weeks in the year. In our ‘Me and My Community’ week, children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, from family to national or even international communities. Importantly, our children will also learn to respect and celebrate different communities. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of our Living and Learning education.
Events and learning during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and self-esteem, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion and disability and children will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations and taking pride in the local area for example by litter picking.
Active travel in the community
We encourage children to get out in the community in an active way on their way to and from school, with prizes available as part of the themed week. By walking/scooting/biking to school, families will by keeping our community safer and healthier by reducing congestion at the school gate. Maybe even pick up a piece of litter on the way. Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter. Bike and scooter storage facilities are available beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
Email us (moortownoffice@spherefederation.org) a picture of your active travel, maybe by a landmark in our community on your route to school, for the chance to win one of five vouchers. Entries to be submitted by noon on Friday 8th November.
New school charity
At the end of the themed week, classes will have the chance to discuss our charity shortlist and the Junior Leadership Team will have the final vote for which charity they would like our school to support, replacing our current charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
Identity day
Friday 8th November will be a non-uniform Identity Day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage. There is no donation or contribution required for this day.
SAVE THE DATE PTA coffee morning Friday 8 November 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome all parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 9:50am in the main playground.
Can you help?
Maybe you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this or you would like to share about your own family culture and heritage. If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Our website continues to keep you up to date with key community events as well as our community noticeboard.
Drop Down Morning
Year 5 had a drop down morning, which means a morning where they recap and revisit their knowledge from previous years. Our morning consisted of a Computing, Geography and History lesson.
In Computing, Year 5 looked at their key vocabulary from Year 3/4. Algorithm: a set of instructions or a set of rules to get something done
Decomposition: the process of breaking down a task into smaller, more manageable parts. They then had to create a code to first direct me around the classroom and then help a squirrel into a tree. (This was a worksheet task- not an actual squirrel!) To finish off this session, the children had time to go onto Scratch Jr and create their own games using repetition.
In Geography, the children had to use atlases to find the capital cities for the countries in Europe. Some children even challenged themselves do complete as many as they could without an atlas! We then focused in on looking at York and Venice and comparing the two cities. Lastly, the children had a small debate is tourism was a positive or negative thing. They came up with lots of reasons for both sides: a positive was that tourism could benefit the country’s economy but a negative was that overtourism could happen, which meant that litter or noise pollution could be an issue for the locals.
In History, we recapped our knowledge about Ancient Greece. The children firstly had an activity to match their key vocabulary with the definitions. They then went on to create a mind map about everything they could remember about the specific time period.
Year 5 showed great remembering skills (one of the 8Rs for learning).
Help at home: How many different codes can you create to help the squirrel get back to its tree?
Connect Challenge
Today, the whole school completed our Connect Challenge, in memory of Rob Burrow, by running walking or skipping seven laps of the back playground and the green. All the children gave 100% and were even asking to do extra laps. It was a great active morning!
Thank you for your donations so far. You can still donate on Gateway until the end of the week with money raised to be split between the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Appeal and our school charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
Living and Learning: I respect others.
In Living and Learning, we looked at how we respect others. We discussed discrimination, protected characteristics and the Equality Act 2010.
Discrimination is defined as “the unfair treatment of people because of who they are or because they have a certain characteristic.”
We remember the protected characteristics by using:
DR S GRAMPS
Disability
Race
Sex
Gender reassignment
Religion or beliefs
Age
Marriage or civil partnership
Pregnancy and/or maternity leave
Sexual orientation
We looked at different scenarios (both made up and real-life cases), where people were treated unfairly and tried to find a solution to the problem. Everyone is the class believes everyone should be treated fairly.
We now have a greater understanding that individual characteristics make everyone in the world unique and we can respect people in several different ways.
Help at home: Name the protected characteristics without looking.
Science: An air-resistance experiment
For the past three science lessons, Year 5 have been planning, undertaking and evaluating a science experiment all about air resistance. Our enquiry type was ‘Comparative and Fair Tests’. The question we were answering was: ‘Will the surface area of a parachute affect the time it takes to fall to the ground?’ The children decided on their variables, made a prediction and then were able to create the parachutes they needed.
Once they were created, the children then went out to test their parachutes and conduct the experiment.
Once we had the results, we were able to look for any anomalous results (a result that does not fit the pattern; in Maths, this is called an outlier). We also looked at the mathematical element of this science lesson as Year 5 could then calculate the average times for the tests.
To present their findings, they created bar charts using the calculated average times. These charts helped to show how the surface area clearly impacted the fall time.
Finally, the children were able to conclude their results. They found out that the bigger parachute had a larger surface area and therefore, there was more air resistance so it was the slowest.
Reading Records
At Moortown, reading records help us to celebrate our love for reading. As a reminder, here is the key information you and your child need to know:
- Each time one of the children signs out a new book to read from the library, they can make note of these in their reading record and rate them out of 5 stars.
- Every Friday, I chose an activity for the whole class to complete in their reading record. More information on these activities is found inside the record.
- The children bring in these reading records every Friday for our Book Club lesson where we’ll discuss their books and develop their love of reading.
- Please accompany your child’s weekly activity with a short comment sharing with us the reading your child has been doing at home.
Take a look at some fabulous activities Year 5 have completed so far:
This week we had a look at each others reading records and wrote compliments on post-it notes to everyone.
Times Table Rockstars
Each week, the TTRS leader board is updated in class. First place gets to spin the reward wheel, second place receives 5 Thunderbolts, third place 4 Thunderbolts and so on. Well done to this week’s Times Tables Rockstars!
Just a quick reminder, that each day, your children should be practising their times tables for 10 minutes. The deadline for this homework is Friday. If your child does not have access to TTRS, please bring in paper copies of their times table practice – with their completed reading record – to school on Friday.
Please see the homework guide for more information.
Leeds Schools Sports Association cross country races
We have received details about the LSSA cross country races for this year. These races take place on a Saturday and children compete against pupils from other Leeds schools.
Please note, parents/carers are responsible for taking and supervising their child/children at these events. There will be a parent representative.
There are opportunities for Year 3 and 4 girls and boys to race 900m and Year 5 and 6 girls and boys to race 1500m.
Race 1 – Saturday 19th October 2024 – Woodhouse Grove School
Race 2 – Saturday 9th November 2024 – Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School
Race 3 –Saturday 14th December 2024 – Prince Henry’s Grammar School
Race 4 – Saturday 18th January 2025 – Middleton Park Subject to confirmation from LCC
More details about race 1 will follow shortly.
Here are some of our Key Stage 2 children taking part in one of the races last year.
Connect Challenge Wednesday 02 October
What is it?
The Connect Challenge is in memory of Rob Burrow CBE. It involves a rugby ball being ‘passed’ between local schools and each school taking part in a physical activity event.
When is it?
The challenge will run from Thursday 26 September, (Rob’s birthday) until Thursday 3 October. Our event is in the morning of Wednesday 2nd October.
Why are we remembering Rob?
Rob Burrow CBE sadly died on 2 June 2024, four and a half years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Throughout that time, Rob and his family bravely chose to publicly share their MND journey to raise awareness of the disease.
What is our Connect Challenge?
We will complete seven (Rob’s rugby shirt number) laps of the green and the back playground by travelling in different ways – walking, jogging or skipping. Children should come to school in outdoor PE kit on the day.
We will be raising money at the event, to be split between the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Appeal and our school charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
We request a donation of at least £1. This can be paid online via school gateway.
Help at home: discuss this challenge at home and the reasons why we are remembering Rob. This challenge is also about friendship. Rob’s ex team mate and friend Kevin Sinfield has now raised over £8 million for MND charities. Ask your child how can they be a better friend?
